Thursday, June 28, 2012

How Chief Justice Roberts Has Shredded The Constitution...

Chief Justice Roberts has ruled the mandate is unconstitutional under the Commerce Clause, but can stand anyway because it is really a tax. Many will consider this argument a technicality. In some ways it is. Imagine a SCOTUS opinion making it illegal to sell a dozen eggs, but legal to sell twelve. That is of course ridiculous and we would be lucky if this was just one stupid and misguided SCOTUS ruling. It isn't. Roberts' opinion fundamentally changes the Constitution. Actually, it shreds it. What Chief Justice Roberts is actually saying is the government can not force you to buy insurance, but they can tax you if you don't.

• “The individual mandate cannot be upheld as an exercise of Congress’s power under the Commerce Clause. That Clause authorizes Congress to regulate interstate commerce, not to order individuals to engage in it.”
• But “it is reasonable to construe what Congress has done as increasing taxes on those who have a certain amount of income, but (who) choose to go without health insurance. Such legislation is within Congress’s power to tax.”

Think about that for a minute. The government can now tax you at will for not engaging in an activity. They can tax you for not buying a Chevy Volt or other electric vehicle. It just gets worse from there. The Constitution won't allow the government to mandate a religion, but they can decide Islam is in the national interest and tax you if you don't join. This practice was calledjizya or jizya and was a feature of early Islam. Chief Justice Roberts and the four liberal members of the Supreme Court have just legalized jizya.